If you are thinking to upgrade from Joomla 2.5 to Joomla 3, this short tutorial is for you. We're going to guide you how to do it. Following these basic steps below will help you to update your Joomla website easily. Let’s have a look!
Note: Once the update, you will not be able to revert back to Joomla 2.5!
Step 1: Back up your website
You need to create a full backup of your site in order to not lose your data. You can use Akeeba back-up tool. Here is the instructions for back-up process.
Step 2: Check to make sure everything is up-to-date
- You go to “Administrator/Extensions/ Extension Manager”
- Make sure that you are using the latest version of all extensions
- Make sure that you are running the latest version of Joomla 2.5. At the time of this writing, its version is 2.5.28.
- To check for sure that you have the latest database schema updated to latest version 2.5.28, please go to: Extension Manager/Database tab . If your database schema is not up to date like in the following image, click the Fix button:
Step 3: Check that your system/host meets the requirements
Before doing something you need to clarify that your hosting environment is suitable to host Joomla 3.x. You go to "Site/System Information" to check and compare to all your settings if they suit all the requirements here.
Joomla 3.x requirement:
Step 4: Check all extensions compatibility with Joomla 3.x
You need to check and make sure that all of these extensions are Joomla 3.x compatible, including the template as well.
Step 5: Delete all extensions that are NOT compatible with Joomla 3.x
You really should be careful with this step.
You go to Administrator and choose "Components": delete components that are not compatible with Joomla 3.x and do the same for "Modules" and "Plugins" Please be careful and do not delete things you have not changed or any Joomla stuff.
When you are done, you could be ready to get your site to Joomla 3.x.
Step 6: Create a test site, then test it first
Before getting your site to Joomla 3.x officially, you should create a back-up site and a test site on your server in a sub-folder. You can have instructions to create a test site here.
After creating the test site, you try to test the upgrade in the test site.
- You go to Components/Joomla Update
- Click the “Options” button, then choose "Short Term Support" in the "Update server" parameter, and click “Save & Close”
- Finally, click "Install the update"
Note: If the "Install the update" doesn't appear right away, you go to Extensions /Extension Manager/Update /Purge Cache.
After done, you move to “Extensions/Extension Manager/Database” to check and make sure there are no errors. If yes, click on Fix button.
Step 7: Apply the update Joomla 2.5 to Joomla 3.x in the live site
You do the same steps on the live site if everything goes well on your test site.
It will take a few seconds to update your Joomla content. Please do not hurry to close your browser window during that process. Finally, you'll see a message for the successful migration.
I have just described the migration process from Joomla 2.5 to Joomla 3.x. I hope that this tutorial will be helpful for you. If you have any further concerns or you want to suggest us any Joomla topics, do not hesitate to contact our team. We will be more than glad to assist you. All your comments are welcomed!